Board 8 > Raetsel's fourth annual music ranking topic. [Nominations]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Finishing the songs currently posted by Lasa & Xtlm brings the current First Reactions total up to 652.

Used yesterday to catch up on Rank the Tracks & today to get through Sergio's 13 songs which moves the total up to 665.

...Now I kinda want to do one more song tonight just for the sake of the number, but I suppose I'll leave it there.

Hey, something that's been on my mind, would it be alright to change the order of my songs before you get to them? I kind of just submitted them in a random order, but looking back I'm not that happy with the order that wound up being, so would it be alright if I just reordered them? I wouldn't be adding or removing anything, just changing the order of the songs.

Yeah, rearranging things shouldn't be an issue. And you (and/or anyone else with time remaining) could still add things to your list, if you wanted.

[Took the night off, so no update.]

I am kinda annoyed I never posted my other songs lol. I said I would but forgot.

Well if it's fine for me to add some more, I've found a couple more songs I wanted to add (along with one I straight up forgot to include in the first place because the document I was keeping track of things with was a mess). My new additions this time are "Orbital Dance", "Trillopod", and "Oreads & Nereids (The Shapers)". Even with them I think I should still be plenty below the limit and I'm fine with not hitting the limit. (Dunno if it's important for me to keep all the links in this second time but I'm doing it anyway.) In any case, I think this order should flow better than how I originally had things.

proswell - PANTALAIMON
https://proswell.dsp.coffee/track/pantalaimon

splitradix - Melody Cube
https://splitradix.bandcamp.com/track/melody-cube

Danny Playamaqui - Fig
https://playamaqui.bandcamp.com/track/fig

Pilotredsky - Clicker That Should Be
https://pilotredsky.bandcamp.com/track/clicker-that-should-be

heoliene - Orbital Dance
https://deuveir.bandcamp.com/track/orbital-dance-2

Sphere - Avatar
https://inpuj.bandcamp.com/track/avatar

Archie Pelago - I Know About Robert's World
https://archiepelago.bandcamp.com/track/i-know-about-roberts-world

Brendan Byrnes - Trillopod
https://spectropolrecords.bandcamp.com/track/trillopod

beaunoise - 251e Quad Sequential
https://beaunoise.bandcamp.com/track/251e-quad-sequential

ilkae - LSK+
https://ilkae.bandcamp.com/track/lsk

Prism Age - Ivresse
https://prismage.bandcamp.com/track/ivresse

Cursor Miner - Dragon Drop
https://lorecordings.bandcamp.com/track/dragon-drop

Hunter Van Brocklin - Oreads & Nereids (The Shapers)
https://iiiypad.bandcamp.com/track/oreads-nereids-the-shapers

GELL - R.N.A!
https://gell.bandcamp.com/track/r-n-a

Ario - Imago
https://ariomusic.bandcamp.com/track/imago

BLRG - Aqua Fluxus
https://immigrantbreastnest.com/track/aqua-fluxus

Mystic Marshmallow - Tilemelter
https://samplepackcontest.bandcamp.com/track/tilemelter

Stephen Weigel - 1536edo, 1700edo, 1728edo, 2460edo, 3072edo, 3125edo, 4296edo, 6144edo, 8539edo, 10600edo, 12288edo, 24576edo, 30103edo, 31920edo, 36829edo, 46032edo, 49152edo, 58973edo, 98304edo, 196608edo ...
https://tinyurl.com/1536edosong

XoArK - Starfish_foam
https://xoark.bandcamp.com/track/starfish-foam

Sir Dupermann - Melkemannen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdVwsbxZtjY

IKTS - f:l:d
https://ikts.bandcamp.com/track/f-l-d

Xtlm posted...

I am kinda annoyed I never posted my other songs lol. I said I would but forgot.

Still plenty of time if you wanted to add more. I was extra careful to specify I listened to your "currently posted" songs to leave the possibiliry of more songs on the table since you had expressed interest in returning.

(Lasa also has time remaining, but has stated he doesn't plan to use it so I'd be more surprised by extra noms from him; let the record show that I'm not actively holding him to that and he could change his mind if desired.)

*pretend I copied part of Kopa's message here; hard to quote parts of multiple posts on a phone*

Thank you! I'll add the new songs and format the list next time I'm at the tablet.

Kopazzynth has nominated 21 songs totaling 1:29:30

Current Total: 783 songs, 54:35:11

Part way through paulg's nominations, up to 680 songs with first impressions.

Okay, I'm going to be very busy on the 29th and might wind up taking a short break or having to rework my schedule a bit depending on what happens; as such, I'm going to try to get all current songs a First Impression score by then. No promises, though it is a theoretically attainable goal (15 more songs tonight brings us to 695/783; not nearly as much progress as I'd hoped, but I was an hour late getting started again).

If anyone's trying to save some nominations for the last minute, I'd really appreciate you getting them in by the 28th as that's the point i'll hopefully be caught up on all currently posted songs.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

(Lasa also has time remaining, but has stated he doesn't plan to use it so I'd be more surprised by extra noms from him; let the record show that I'm not actively holding him to that and he could change his mind if desired.)

yeah, i'm not going to add any extra noms. i'm satisfied with my current noms.

Finishing paul and CJones' nominations brings the total to... a number I've already forgotten, but leaves it at only Tox & Kopa's lists remaining without first impressions.

Only 14 songs without first impressions to go. I should hopefully be able to finish tomorrow; then I'll have a very busy week coming up afterwards and will figure out how I'm going to approach the second phase of listening afterwards.

784/784 songs with first impressions. Phase 1 is... semi-officially over. (Literal last minute nominations remain open until the 29th). I'm not immediately sure why the total is 784 (and yes, I did combine the two DEMONDICE songs I said i was going to combine) instead of 783, but there are 784 songs with scores, so I'll just assume that's the accurate tally.

Phase 2 of listening will take longer to get through, as i hope to say everything I want to say about each song--the First Reaction comments are rather.. sparse for a lot of songs, but I'll hopefully get to work on things in a week or two.

Hype for phase 2.

It's officially March 30th in all timezones, so I'm going to officially close nominations here. Things have gone fairly well this week, so I should be able to get started on the second round of listening later this evening.

22/784

Still a busy week even if all the worst-case scenarios were avoided, so not quite as much progress as one might have hoped... but still considerably more than the zero progress that could have happened, so yay,

44

I'd create a lazy edited Princess Luna "THE [PROGRESS] HAS BEEN DOUBLED!" reaction image here, but my phone's about to die and that feels like a bit too much effort for a generic update post.

73

Taking my time, but making slow-and-steady progress.

Had to take a half day & a full day off due to holiday related events, putting the total at... 86. Well below target expectations, but holidays gonna holiday.

100 songs exactly. A nice number that shows a clear amount of progress.

117

...What an odd number to update on.

Apologies. I basically had to take two days off for reasons insignificant enough to not be worth mentioning... and I'll be needing the next two days off as well. (Though I'll at least take care of Rank the Tracks on Monday, so it's not a total loss.)

128, work resumes on Wed.

No need to be sorry, take your time.

Thank you for your understanding and support!

140.

157

With VGMC nominations starting (my favorite time of the year), expect progress here to slow down even further because the nom phase takes priority over all things. I already mentioned I'd consider myself on break for this period of time (VGMC itself will not impact my ranking speed in any notable way once nominations are over).

I'll try to get in a song or two here each day, but no promises.

164

Minimal progress for obvious reasons. I've gotten a few songs from here in since the rate of new nominations at VGMC has slowed to a crawl (because very, very few people can get through the entire 1000+ song list in the first place), but I'm still mostly keeping an eye on spreadsheets and clicking rather arbitrary songs on YouTube to see if there's anything I feel like throwing out there on a whim instead of getting back to work here. So... slight progress and what not, but it's better than nothing.

173

...I should go one more just so it's an even ten since the last update, but I'm a tad busy tonight, so 173 and a minimal update it is.

So, kind of an arbitrary series of questions here, but is there anyone around who could try to help me learn how to describe the type of Sega Genesis music I'm interested in? There weren't many Genesis songs nominated at VGMC and none of those that were happened to use the types of sounds I was hoping to hear... so I was going to try to nominate one myself (more for the sake of having one on the playlist than a belief that it'd be supported), but hit a bit of a problem when I couldn't find one I wanted to nominate and couldn't describe what I wanted well enough to ask anyone for soundtracks or composers that I should look into.

It's one thing to not be able to properly describe my thoughts as long as I know what I meant; it's another when the lack of words is actually preventing communication and actively frustrating when I lack the words to even explain it to myself. "These nominations are playing the wrongs beeps, give me songs that play the RIGHT beeps" is not a coherent thought. So... here's a few Genesis songs, that also aren't exactly what I'm looking for but are at least in the ballpark?:

Traysia - Castle:
https://youtu.be/SzdWaZJTq6Q

Top Gear 2 - Auckland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZwtQ2Cz_Qc

Battle Mania Daiginjou - Sun Rise Purple:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUWogVlxr3Y

Uhh... for popular songs, I guess Chemical Plant Zone is sorta close in places?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LYB7iLZNWE

And I know the songs aren't exactly similar, but there's something about the instrumentation? Like the first two tracks have notes that are...umm... lower pitched or something, giving them this kinda deep "bwoom" feeling? And while the latter two have higher pitched beeping music like a lot of Genesis games, they also have like an... artificial bass instrument or something that's playing notes I like in a register I like? I feel like I'm using the wrong words for both sets of songs and that it's difficult for anyone to understand what I'm looking for even with examples, but I also don't really know how I'd go about learning the *right* words. It's not like there's a textbook on "artificial instruments in retro games" or something.

Well... considering that I don't exactly love any of those four examples, it's quite possible I'm barking up the wrong tree in my pursuit of new Genesis music anyway. They're just doing *something* I find appealing and I had hoped to find more new songs doing whatever that something was. Don't worry if this is all gibberish, I'll get back to work soon either way, but in the unlikely event that someone here knows the correct terms or has song/composer suggestions, that would be appreciated--even for non- Genesis songs, honestly I think the closest VGMC nominated song was that one Tintin track (which... really wasn't like any of those four, but did have a certain BWOOM-ing quality of its own) so the system is less important than the sound.

No update today as I decided to do this instead of actual work on the actual project. Aaanywho, thank you for humoring my nonsense and I'll get back to work as soon as I'm finished decompressing from the VGMC nominating period. (I... may have slightly underestimated how much time I'd want to spend resting after speed-running a list of a thousand songs)

hi. i am someone who at one point in my life was so obsessed with sega genesis music that i listened to every sega genesis ost in alphabetical order multiple times.....

synths (especially very strange synths like the genesis) can be difficult to talk about in words since they're not "real", so i don't even think you're lacking language...it's just abstract sounds meaning the language to describe them is best abstract too! i mean...i could get technical about things, but mostly even other people who are really into technical aspects of synth sound design would probably just say "it sounds like bwoooom when i turn this knob on the synth" too, tbh.

anyways, my first instinct is to say.....if you like "Battle Mania Daiginjou - Sun Rise Purple", you should check out the entire ost to the game "Socket" (aka Time Dominator). Socket features the same 3 composers as battle mania daiginjou, but more consistently in the style of sun rise purple than anything from battle mania daiginjou (a lot of people i know suspect that sun rise purple was a scrapped/unused song from socket that they snuck into the game, or something)

https://project2612.org/details.php?id=34

before i got completionist about it, when i was early on into trying to listen to genesis music, i'd browse project2612 and then go onto the downloads page, and click on the composers of any genesis soundtracks i found i liked, and it resulted in branching paths from there---

like i knew i liked sonic 3d blast's music. so i decided to click on the "Masaru Setsumaru" link that you can highlight from the downloads list, and it'd bring me to this page
https://project2612.org/search.php?query=Masaru+Setsumaru&field=composer

and then i'd see "Stellar Assault" which i'd never heard of before. I'd click it and get obsessed with THAT even more., and you c ould just keep going in chains from new composer to new composer from there

or you could just click random songs...do whatever you want of course! but i found this site a very useful resource when genesis music was my primary vgm obsession, which was definitely a substantial period of my vgm listening life

it's especially convenient these days that the site has an embedded player, which it didn't used to

Toxtricity posted...

(a lot of people i know suspect that sun rise purple was a scrapped/unused song from socket that they snuck into the game, or something)

I did notice that song felt a bit out of place on the album... the other Battle Mania Daiginjou songs had a more electrified buzzing sound (somewhat like Mean Bean Machine's Exercise Mode) while Purple was... well, not that in short.

Thank you very much for the suggestion and and advice! I'll definitely try clicking around that site tomorrow.

also since you seem to really like that style of sega genesis bass sound i am going to recommend you a few songs that really go ham with that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnrDaFaRlA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9Wq5d50wGs

(but honestly socket is full of a version of that kinda sound more similar to chemical plant / sunrise purple, so...again, you should check out the Socket ost hahaha)

and you mentioned that lower bwooom sound from the first few. not sure these exactly hit the mark for you but a couple ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBSH2p_a1GE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utAo36-jzas

this might cover both at the same time??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67fZSJKQfkQ

maybe none of these were what you're looking for at all, but hopefully it's a decent starting point. just throwing things at the wall! i wish you best of luck on your quest for "sega genesis songs that are using the sounds you are looking for"

Thank you so, so much for those suggestions! It's just so wonderful and validating to have someone even try to understand what I was getting at. I honestly thought about trying to ask you directly because I was pretty sure you'd mentioned an interest in the Genesis' soundtracks before and have always tried to expand my musical knowledge & horizons a bit, but I knew you were pretty busy and I wanted to (hopefully) avoid coming off too pushy or sounding like I was demanding your attention. I want you to know that your responses made me really, really happy and I'm always grateful for your insights.

All those tracks seem new to me, but what's really funny is <i>how close</i> I was to finding almost all of them. The account that posted that "Traysia - Castle" song actually uploaded the entire Socket soundtrack at almost the exact same time as the one from Traysia, and while I clicked a few arbitrary songs from nearby games, I wound up avoiding that one entirely. So "you should have clicked the game adjacent to the one you actually clicked" was a pretty funny message to get, especially as it was all a coincidence! The Socket soundtrack is quite pleasant to listen to (I keep calling it "Sprocket" though...) ; it has that mixture of being both familiar because it's done in a style similar to things I know while still being new, so it's rather a fun way to relax before getting into any actual work.

I had clicked a few Thunder Force IV songs, but not that one specifically. I was looking at the VGMC Total Stats sheet for new Genesis music, saw Thunder Force IV and knew it was supposed to be one of the better soundtracks, clicked a few songs... and then wandered off before getting to Space Walk. So again the suggestion was practically *right there* and I managed to miss it. There's probably a lesson there about 'actually listen to the entire soundtrack instead of just two or three songs'....

In the opposite direction, I'm not sure I've even heard of Darxide before, but the intro to that song was amazing! It felt like I was melting into a puddle of goo and I was like "ohh yeah, that's the good stuff". Like those notes, right there, are *exactly* what I need more of in my life.

The Ecco song was also neat, though I'm afraid I didn't type up anything specific when it was playing and I've listened to the entire Socket soundtrack since I started writing this message, so I can't really recall enough specifics to comment on it directly... I did like it though. (While we're back on the subject of Socket, I am oddly entranced by "Time Trial". It's not at all what I was looking for, but it's very "buzzing" in a way that's just... delightfully confounding. I've already listened to it three times.)

It's really surprising that I hadn't heard the Gauntlet IV song before. It's like I absolutely love the intro to the C64 version of Gauntlet III and was obsessed with the song from the Lynx's unrelated Gauntlet III (though the only available uploads now cleaned up the audio so it no longer sounds the way I loved), so one would expect that I'd at least check out songs from the Genesis Gauntlet games (if not all versions of Gauntlet on all platforms), but somehow, I just never really considered it. It's another case where it's something I probably should have found myself, but didn't, so thank you again.

(and clicking around that site you linked is pretty fun. Following a link from Gauntlet IV gets to "Verytex" and its ending theme is doing some similar things, so this already seems to be much more productive than just hitting YouTube links at random.)

I'm not sure if or when you'll see this response, but I at least wanted to try to properly thank you for everything and say that I did enjoy those songs (especially the Darxide one) & tell you how much posts like yours mean, even if I don't properly show my appreciation often enough. And while everyone else has already said as much, take as much time as you need to recover. Your heath is more important than anything happening here and B8 will be here whenever you're ready for it. Take care of yourself, mate.

i'm glad you found what i've sent you valuable!! if you especially liked the darxide track, that ost is very self-consistent in style/sound, so i'd definitely recommend the whole thing to you

and thanks so much for the...thank yous, and well wishes. i'll still be popping in here and there, it was just unhealthy for me to be tethered directly to a social center and event with as much of the specific energy as vgmc had. i'll still sporadically be around to whatever extent i can, but pretty minorly

Comments in no particular order:

Apologies again and thanks everyone for being understanding. I've taken far more days off than expected; I just haven't felt like saying anything lately, so I tend to set everything up, listen to one song, and stare blankly for a while before playing Mega Man fangames instead. Work should resume tomorrow.

Shonen closed their account a short while ago. I'm not sure why (their last post was a standard one in the Best Pokemon series), but I hope he's alright and wish him the best.

Finished listening to Darxide the other day and would like to point to Track 6 as being fairly interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8pAVqUoTWI

It has a Tim Follin-esque "ascending to Heaven" high-pitched part over the top of the low tones I wanted. Kinda like two songs playing at once (particularly around 2:32, IIRC). It goes on a bit too long, but it's still kinda neat.

196

Hey, work has resumed. Yay!

First thought for Sega bwoomy basses was Subterrania. In the comments, I saw something that may be a good descriptor: "Sega's grungy synth"

https://youtu.be/yCPgPENPT7w

210

Wasn't feeling great over the weekend and took another two days off. Nothing serious (ate and drank some things I shouldn't have), just "blargh"-y enough to not want to do anything.

Mega Mana posted...

First thought for Sega bwoomy basses was Subterrania. In the comments, I saw something that may be a good descriptor: "Sega's grungy synth"

https://youtu.be/yCPgPENPT7w

Fairly neat track. It's probably just me, but it reminds me of something from Sonic Spinball; that particular blend of low and high notes feels like it wouldn't be terribly out of place following Toxic Caves. Though again that could just be my imagination, as usual.

220

Trying to aim for 5 songs a day, but took Friday off because AEW Rampage's weird start time threw off my schedule completely. I may be taking Sunday off as well to watch Double or Nothing--we'll see, I suppose.

235

Kupo.

265

Felt like making more progress than I have lately, so while it's not a tremendous update, it's definitely more songs than have been covered lately.

277

Need a couple days off again. One of my wrists is a bit sore at the moment; not injured or actively painful, but I should try to take it easy for a bit before it becomes an issue.

Bump; I shall hopefully resume on Wed.

280

My right hand is kinda shot at the moment. Should recover eventually, but I'll be typing one handed for a while... don't want to put this project on hiatus, but progress will be slower until I'm able to properly type again.

Change of plans, definitely going on hiatus until I recover a bit. If someone could bump this as needed until I'm back, I'd appreciate it. Will keep up with VGMC & Rank the Tracks, but will try to take a break from other topics for a while.

(I do need to keep up with a game I'm in on another board, but that shouldn't take too much time and then I can take a break there as well.)

Take as much time off as you need.

BlackDra90n posted...

Take as much time off as you need.

Yes, this. Don't worry about it, especially in the context of such a monumental project.

Thank you all again for your patience. I'll try to get some progress done on Sunday and try an "every other day" schedule for awhile, see if more regular breaks helps prevent things from getting too bad again.

Much love!

Nothing gets to you, staying fresh staying cool

Thank you again.

287; light progress, but it is movement at a sustainable pace, so I'll take it.

...290.

Basically, I get around a half-hour that I can spend either typing or playing a game and I kinda chose games the last couple days. Going to take another week off and see how I'm doing then--I may wind up just scrapping this round of writeups and focus only on giving updated scores to songs... I'm thinking it probably makes more sense to get everything scored and ranked, then I can probably add writeups to songs when they're eliminated (or, in worst case scenario, can just post a spreadsheet of all the scores and at least say things were ranked). Because keeping this pace it'll take several years before the first song is even eliminated and that is.... not ideal, obviously.

But, we'll see in a week or so.